


Antedate

by Lertsek



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 16:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lertsek/pseuds/Lertsek
Summary: There are some nights where Kun wakes up and can't hear Ten breathe.[Prompt: sleeping next to someone you love and being reminded that you are alive.]





	Antedate

It is night, but then again, it is not. 

Kun wakes up disoriented and with a slight panic that he has to get up already. He lets his brain restart and it supplies him with the fact that today is a sunday, and if that is not reason enough for him to stay in bed longer, the fact that it is only 4 am is. Kun blinks back at the white light from his phone and instantly lowers the brightness. He turns around to see if he hasn’t woken Ten up. 

The boy next to him is still fast asleep. Kun traces the lines of Ten’s body with his eyes. It is said that 4 am is angel hour. Kun smiles as he finds himself agreeing. 

Ten is beautiful even with his arms strewn about and shirt half ridden up to reveal part of his stomach. The hint of early morning sun adds just the tiniest bit to the picture. Kun almost picks his phone back up to snap one. A picture. He decides against it, doesn’t want to risk disturbing Ten’s sleep and besides, iPhones aren’t good with this kind of lighting.

Ten is wearing one of Kun’s old shirts. It’s the blue Motörhead one. Or at least it used to be blue, it’s now more of a faded grey with one or two holes at the collar from the many times it has cycled through the washing machine. When Kun argued to throw it out because it had surely seen better days, Ten refused. _I’ll wear it from now on,_ he’d told Kun with a grin. 

On some fridays, when Kun gets home too late from a job that doesn’t even pay him for his extra hours, Ten puts on Ace of Spades just as Kun walks through the front door and proceeds to dance like a maniac for as long as it takes for Kun to join him. Kun usually gives in halfway through the first verse. 

Ten has one arm slung above his head and the other splayed out on the side of the bed that is decidedly Kun’s. His hair is partly sticking to his forehead, partly a tangle on the pillow. 

A week ago, Ten had asked him over breakfast what the one color was that Kun would never dye his hair. Kun had responded with purple. 

Three days later he was sitting on the edge of their bathtub with a towel draped over his shoulders and a layer of bleach going strong in his hair, another one waiting for him, as well as the package with a woman with bright purple locks on the cover that rested on the counter of the sink. 

Because since he started dating Ten, their motto has always been one for all and all for one, Ten was sitting next to him, on his own first layer of bleach, many more awaiting him. 

“I think the regret has set in but at this point, it’s too late to turn back.” 

Kun lets out a laugh. “We could always both go purple.” 

“No thank you, I’ll take looking like a strawberry over looking like an eggplant,” Ten responds, clutching his own package of red hair dye a little closer. “And that says a lot.” 

Kun may or may not accidentally put a bit of bleach on one of Ten’s eyebrows when they’re applying the second layer. 

4 am is angel hour, his angel is just wearing an old worn-out shirt and sporting a badly done dye job. 

Kun listens to the sounds outside. In the far off distance, he can hear a car engine start. He’s grateful that the only thing he has to do today is take a shower. Maybe he and Ten can go check out the new exposition of German expressionistic art that the museum two blocks from their apartment imported, and Ten will let him ramble on and on and on about the era and the best painters and throw in his own comments like, _jesus christ this color scheme is horrendous._

Or maybe they can stay in and spend their time lazing around in bed. To Kun, wasting the day away with pancakes and Ten in his arms sounds like heaven. 

It’s quiet in their bedroom. Kun listens to the silence. He tries to grasp at sounds but there are none. He realizes he can’t hear Ten breathe. And just for a split second, there is fear. 

It’s not the same fear he felt when Ten and he tried out surfing during the second vacation they ever went on together. It’s not the same fear when Ten got too eager and paddled headfirst into the biggest wave of that entire afternoon. It’s not the same fear when he saw Ten go under and not resurface. Kun has never swum so fast in his entire life, moving on autopilot. As he held a gurgling and swearing Ten in his arms, kicking with all his might to keep both of them above water, surfboards gone and forgotten, his first thought was: I’ve got you. The second one was: I’m not letting you go, not now, not ever. 

It’s not the same piercing fear as he felt then, the one that clamps itself around your heart and makes you swim like an Olympic athlete. 

This one is smaller, a little pang. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there. 

Kun leans over and puts his hand above Ten’s slightly opened mouth. After a second, he feels air push back against his palm. Slow, but steady. 

Kun lets his hand hover in the air, Ten’s breath touching it every few seconds. Kun slows down his own breathing until the air that enters and exits his lungs matches Ten’s pace. 

He retreats his hand, content. The slight sliver of doubt is gone. The pang of fear has disappeared, retreated and gone back to sleep for the next time Kun wakes up in the middle of the night and has to check Ten’s breathing. 

Kun lets his body sink back into the mattress, careful not to rest his entire weight on Ten’s arm. He snuggles a bit closer and places his hand on the skin that the Motörhead shirt doesn’t cover. 

Ten sniffs and, like it’s on instinct, Kun feels Ten’s arm come to wrap around him, holding him, protecting him. Kun presses himself even closer and exhales. 

It’s 4:15 am when he closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. In a couple of hours, he will wake up to Ten’s open and kind eyes looking down at him. His mouth wearing an even kinder smile before he will open it and start to complain that his arm hurts and would Kun kindly move his heavy as shit body. And Kun will say _shut up_ and kiss him, bad morning breath and all. 

But for now, it is night, but then again, it is not.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me your fav line and motörhead song
> 
> [ Twitter ](http://twitter.com/lertsektweets)  
> [ Curious cat ](https://curiouscat.me/)


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